=== Jonny Gomes Non-Tendered ===
Let's say that you were looking for a Three True Outcomes muscleman who fit the following criteria:
- 60-to-160 EYE
- 27-30 HR per 162 (so far)
- 435 feet is routine when he gets his pitch
You can't use Jack Cust, because Cust's EYE is a reliable 0.50; Jack Cust walks a ton. Like 100-120 times per full season. Extreeeeeeme pitch stalker.
You can't use Rob Deer, because Deer wasn't really very good. He'd fan 200 times, full season, and hitting .179 in a season wasn't shocking for him.
You can't use Adam Dunn, because Dunn does not hit 27 home runs per season. Also, Dunn walks >100 times. Dunn is the legit-4 hitter of the TTO players.
You know who fits Jonny Gomes' TTO profile? This guy rat cheer. That's who fits Gomes' profile, albeit from the other side.
As a nontender, in a role, that's a whale of a pickup. Assuming that you have some kind of role in mind for him ... 4 OF's to make 3, or somesuch.
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Safeco? No big whoop. Check the hittracker. 400-440 to left, and he hits them deep out to RF as well.
The platoon splits -- aren't. He hit 15 homers in 203 PA's last year against righties, and 5 homers in 111 against lefties.
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Gomes is certainly not a platoon hitter -- most pitch-stalkers are not -- but you could use him with respect to some other player's platoon problem. You could use him in LF when there's a tough lefty, or in LF (with Saunders in CF) when there's a righty who gives Franklin Gutierrez problems.
Let's say you pull off the giant trade for Adrian Gonzalez, or let's suppose you settle for Adam LaRoche at 1B or something like that. The Custs and Branyans and Gomeses of the world tend to come pretty cheap.
Getting 300+ AB's, Gomes is very likely to provide you a Branyan-esque 125 OPS+.
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I'm partial to Three True Outcomes players, and love them in Safeco. I predict Gomes to have a Cust or Branyan career, but more of it.
Whether there's enough a fit for that with this club, to let Bill Hall go, you tell me. :- ) I for one would certainly look at whether it makes sense to eat the $1.5m on Hall (IIRC) and sign Gomes cheaply.
-jemanji
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